Matter first-to-market with Cat-1 LTE cellular mobile enabled IoT

Melbourne, Australia – 27 April 2017 – Australian tech start-up Matter launches first-to-market IoT Gateway integrating Telstra’s 4G LTE Cat-1 Network.

Over the next decade the Internet of Things (IoT) is predicted to transform entire industries. An estimated 30 billion connected devices are expected to be deployed by 2025¹ for a range of applications including utility meters, vending machines, automotive (fleet management, smart traffic systems, real time traffic information to the vehicle, security monitoring and reporting), medical metering and alerting.

Matter is pioneering the use of IoT technologies to democratise the energy market, with ‘Solar for Rentals’, a low-cost meter-to-cash service that enables property investors to sell solar power to their tenants.

o keep service costs down, onsite meter data has been backhauled to Matter’s cloud via the tenant’s Internet connection, limiting the market to properties that have Internet and requiring Matter to manage intermittent network availability.

The integration of LTE into Matter’s IoT Gateway broadens the market and positions the company to extend its service offerings to other IoT and Internet of Energy applications.

“I am pleased to announce that we are releasing a new IoT gateway that provides our landlords and tenants with connectivity to a mobile network, just like your phone” says Chris Mrakas, Matter CEO & Co-Founder.

“This new capability will increase the grade of service, reduce reliance on tenant Internet connectivity and improve quality of service when remote support is needed.”

Matter’s IoT Gateway

Matter’s meter-to-cash service encompasses the monitoring of solar and grid energy usage at rental properties, generation of a bill for the tenant and remittance of payments to landlords.

This requires installing real-time monitoring technology at a property and the transportation of data back to the cloud. Matter's IoT gateway is the workhorse that provides connectivity to onsite meters and sensors, data buffering and compression, and connectivity back to its cloud-based billing applications.

The IoT Gateway showcases the power of cutting edge technologies including Wi‑Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth in an IoT architecture. The addition of 4G LTE Cat-1 provides a low-cost, secure and scalable alternative backhaul communications mechanism in addition to a property’s Internet connection.

 “This development provides our landlords with a cost effective, ‘always-on,’ IoT service over mobile networks,” Mrakas says. “By not relying on a site’s internet connection, Matter can now deploy its service to any property.”

New Developments

“Our customers have been asking us for mobile connectivity for a while,” says Mrakas “but the high cost of ‘regular’ 4G made this commercially unviable.”

A number of developments have made an LTE enabled IoT Gateway possible:

1.     Telstra’s deployment of LTE Cat 1 in Australia - Following Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile in the USA, and NTT DoCoMo in Japan, Telstra’s new 4G LTE Cat-1 Network (Long Term Evolution Category 1) network is capable of delivering data rates to support real IoT use cases. With throughput speed capped at 10 Mbps it is significantly less complex and less power hungry than 4G, making it perfect for IoT applications like Solar for Rentals that need moderate amounts of throughput, nothing like video on demand.

2.     More affordable data plan pricing - Telstra’s new 4G LTE Cat-1 data network is also considerably cheaper than 4G and these cost savings mean it is now feasible for Matter to bundle data in its monthly subscription cost.

3.     A new IoT Operating System - Matter over-hauled their connectivity backbone to exploit Cat-1. Developing a more advanced operating system for the gateway has significantly reduced data usage whilst maintaining quality and accuracy. 

Using IoT to improve energy security

An important application for IoT is to help transform the energy market with ‘behind the meter’ services including household battery storage, energy management and local energy trading. IoT provides a critical layer of real-time data, control and communications.

With real-time control and predictive analytics capabilities, Matter’s technology platform has been architected to automatically optimise usage of solar, battery and grid electricity without affecting the consumers at a property.

“With 4G LTE Cat 1 we can easily extend the number of IoT devices we manage in a property, providing new and exciting services over our gateway and using our own communication network. This is a very positive development on our product road-map.”

“This intelligence when deployed to Australia’s 2.6 million rental properties has the potential to create significant value for property investors and renters, as well as assist in securing the nations energy security,” says Chris Mrakas.

Strategic Manufacturing Partner

 

Matter has worked in partnership with SRXGlobal to develop and manufacture the IoT Gateway together with Matters other associated devices.

“SRXGlobal’s complete turn-key manufacturing capabilities and their focus on quality and process controls has proven invaluable in supporting the development of our product range. The partnership with SRXGlobal is an important element of our technical and delivery capability” says Mrakas.

Joe Browne, Executive Chairman of SRXGlobal, adds: “We are excited to be working with Matter in the dynamic and emerging domain of IoT technologies. In particular, the challenges being faced by consumers in the Australian energy market today makes the launch of IoT Gateway very timely.”

Availability

Matter will be installing LTE enabled gateways on the Telstra network from May 2017.

¹ Source: Machina Research, May 2015

 

About Matter

Solar panels collect energy. Matter lets landlords sell it.

Matter is an Australian-based technology start-up and the emerging leader in Solar for Rentals. Our service enables landlords to monetise solar by charging their tenant for daytime electricity generated from their roof. For tenants this means lower prices and clean electricity. Whilst deployments are growing, a third of society who rent can’t get access to solar. Our goal is to use technology to help make energy cheaper and cleaner for everyone.

For more information, please visit  http://matter.solar

About SRXGlobal

Headquartered in Sydney, SRXGlobal is a leading and long-established Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider focused on delivering full box-build solutions including design, engineering and manufacturing services to industrial, medical, automotive, telecommunications and defence OEMs. SRXGlobal helps customers design, build, ship, and service electronics products with a presence in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. This international footprint provides design and engineering solutions that are combined with core electronics manufacturing and logistics services, dovetailing neatly into customer operations by lowering costs and reducing time to market.

For more information, please visit www.srxglobal.com

ENDS